A Scene From a Corner Table....Lunch Time In America...by Jamil Shawwa

It is lunchtime here in the US, around 12:00 PM. The place is one of the usual ones, my same table when I am eating alone, a table for two at the corner of the restaurant with a view to the whole place. I go there, the servers and the hostesses stopped even saying anything to me, I just go and set, sometimes it is not available, and I have to choose another, yet less strategic table. Lunch is a choice of either the buffet or A La Carte. I chose the cheapest, the buffet, though not necessarily or even not at all less quality. I situated myself, the waiter arrived with the Soda drink and a glass of water, I do not drink, otherwise, a very cold glass of Bear would have hit the spot today, but the Soda was nice, I am content. About 12 to 14 tables in the place with a divider or a big paravan that separates the place into two sections for those who require more privacy. The patrons are mostly from near by companies, the area is the hub and a suburban of Washington DC, about 6 miles south of the capital and about 4 miles north of my house.




Table one: must be Jamil... starting to move to the buffet and glancing around to survey the surroundings not for charming girls, there were none today, but for learning the eating patterns of the patrons... bad habit I have, snooping around to see what people eat and how they eat.







Table 2: a couple in the mid 40s probably married, they were eating but not talking, and they were not looking at each other.





Table three: a man and a woman, maybe co-workers-They work for the same office; I noticed the badges- talking about the new IPad while moving for a second round, it is all you can eat.







Table 4: group of mixed people, men and women talking business and new software that company is launching soon.







Table Five: politics-oh, thanks God, some people are making sense. The topic is the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Some where happy with Obama's handling and some compared him with George W. Bush and the handling of the Katrina hurricane few years ago- Meaning not happy with Obama.







Table Six: that was it for me, could not hear anything else except for moving lips and the noise of the forks and knives.







It is lunchtime in America. Between 12:00 PM and 1:30 PM, America moves in doves outside the offices, they go out, enjoy lunch, in restaurants, in bars, no drinks unless you were an executive and you do not mind; to fast food, anywhere but outside the office. Go to Washington DC, to the parks around the White House, the Potomac River, Georgetown and people are eating and talking. America likes its lunch and America actually likes its three meals. Once, years ago, a smart and very attractive waitress told me that the lunch usually for a table or a person does not exceed 45 minutes, and this is how restaurants usually calculate their turn around business and calculate the profit. They expect each table to finish the whole meal in 45 minutes. At that time, this did not make sense to me, and actually, I thought that she was trying to tell me to have some etiquette and not to stay long because she wants to have other customers using my table and a new tip rather than my usual 15% tip. Today, I looked and calculated the time for me and other tables and she was right, I personally did not need to use more than 45 minutes. I looked at my watch- the phone clock, my watch is broken- by the end of the meal and it was around that period. I am going to tell that waitress, she is still in business in one of the luxury hotels near by. I used to go there more often but our economy hit me as well as millions of Americans and many of us are happy-or have no choice but to be happy- with our reasonably priced yet tasty hangouts.

The Fountain of The Female Power.....by Jamil Shawwa

I am wondering here through the deepest waters of all, the unknown, the most dangerous area in the human psychic, the female power. I have to say and admit that I have never been more inspired than when in the company of female friends, companions and, believe it or not, the wife. The inspiration of course could be positive or negative but still an inspiration to do something or write. Millions and millions of people, thinkers, philosophers, Politicians, and even the worst forms of humans’ traffickers, pimps, through out history and until now and tomorrow have struggled to answer one question: where is the female power, where does it reside, where is the hub. What makes a female look so fatal that can make the strongest men succumb and surrender like babies in a candy store; maybe I just answered my question. Why women companionship to most men is the ultimate joy, and why some men if not most prefer a female conversation rather than a male, I understand the male and the female bondages but still when the female inters a room, the bondage- among men- disappears and the appeasement appears. Why do we stand before women speechless, why do we want to make them happy, and why we do not like to argue with them. The direct answer probably would be because ultimately the goal is the same, to conquer the unconquered, to reach the motherland, to land where everything is warm and friendly. Now, that was the obvious, that of course I will not deny or challenge, but there is more to the female than the obvious. Her strength comes from being a female, the opposite, maybe women apply the same logic here, but we are talking about the female power now. They say opposite attract, it is in everything, in physics, in the batteries when you put the positive and the negative, not that women and men either this one or that. The examples are abound and tremendous and overwhelming; the bottom line is that no one can really venture into this area except the female itself. The other day I was in a restaurant and I saw a mother giving her maybe six or seven years old daughter a twenty dollars note. The girl did not have any pockets so her mother asked but where are you going to put the money and the girl did not answer, she just reached to her shirt and tucked the money underneath. Amazing, I have seen women doing this all over the world; their safety net is their chest, or the top. I have seen it the Middle East where women would hide or keep their gold in their chests. However, how this seven years old girl knew where to keep the money, how did she know that this is the place to hide and keep; the answer is; it is natural to the female; she did not need to be taught. Her power is her body, and this is it, I think, women trust their bodies more than anything else does; it is their safety net, their intimate friend, their trusted companion.

The Muslim, Christian and Jewish Brotherhood... a view ...by Jamil Shawwa

For the strict purpose of this article, I am going to use two major powers- and then branch out- in the Middle East right now to make the point, The State of Israel and the Islamic Republic of Iran. See, from the names of these countries you probably would know what I am going to talk about. I agree with the title or the name of Israel and I do not agree with the name of Iran. I do not agree with countries adding a religion or nationality to their names. Now, Israel can -and I said before- explains or decides that it is a Jewish state and Iran if it changes its name can decide that it is an Islamic country- as long as it is not in the name itself and as long as the countries that put a description respect civil liberties. I know in Israel, you can be anything and still live your life normally; you can have a mosque, a church and a synagogue. In Iran it is not the same, women have to cover their hair, have to abide by certain restrictions and the country imposes its description or it's version of religion on its citizens and others, Israel does not.

Few days ago in a discussion, I said-concerning the Muslim Brotherhood organization- that the official number of its members if it exists does not mean much to show the real strength of the group. The strength of the Brotherhood stems from many factors. The main factor in my opinion is that they are banned, and this makes them look mysterious and make ordinary people intrigued by the fact that the state keeps cracking down on them. Based on media and public pulse reports, the group could win the parliamentary elections not only in Egypt but also in Jordan, Syria, and other Arab countries if it is conducted completely freely. I know this scares moderates, liberals, and conservatives who feel that the religion's place is not in politics, or who oppose the theological system of government. The Muslim Brotherhood and other religion based political parties can participate in elections but only if they adapt the following: They must respect and obey civil liberties and civic societies, must respect and obey the liberal constitutions. They must obey and respect the people’s will in not using violence and terrorism to achieve political gains. They can of course have their political agendas and political maneuvers but they must recognize the right of the State of Israel to exist side by side with the new State of Palestine. The problem is not the Muslim Brotherhoods; the root cause resides in the Arab regimes, they are not elected freely, and they do not have the legitimacy to govern. Another problem is the constitutions of many Arab countries, how can you ban the Muslim Brotherhood and other religion based political parties if the preamble of many Arab countries constitutions states that the region is the only source for legislation. Contradictions and hypocrisy, I think.

I just cannot see going back as countries and cultures to have theological states although we have been seeing and witnessing a strict or even fanatic interpretation of the three divine religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam across the world. People are suffering from mental, spiritual vacuums, frustrations, disillusionment and financial distress. They are resorting to purity, spirituality that is found according to the minds of most humans in the holy books or faiths, in the beliefs. The different sects and interpretations within each faith still tear people apart. Religions in my thinking are personal, private, use them the way you want, cherish them, but to yourself and do not impose them. Go to your synagogue, to your church, to your mosque, to your temple, if you want but again do not force them. Mine is not better than yours and vice versa, should be the mantra. In Europe, there are political parties with a religion adjacent to its names, such as the Christian Democratic Party in Italy, but Italy is just Italy, not a theological state. The parties there though cherish the principles, do not impose them to change the state into a theological state. In the United States, we do not have parties with a religion name in particular but we have groups, such as the life groups that do not believe in abortion besides those who do not mind it. Fighting democratically for what you believe is fine, arguing, debating, deliberating, all are good as long as we stick to dialogues and not violence. Free societies usually do not strict political or religious parties from existence; you can have for example, a Jewish Brotherhood, or Christen Brotherhood or as in the Middle East right now and for generations the Muslim Brotherhood. I want to go further and say why not having all these organizations in the Middle East if someone or groups are interested. This is the point I want to make, if you allow a Muslim Brotherhood in the Middle East, then you cannot ban a Christen or Jewish Brotherhoods in the same place. The followers of the three religions exist and they have or should have the same rights. I really do not see a problem in naming a political party with a religion as long as this party respects the civil liberties and the civic and liberal societies that in my opinion the Middle East should be based on. The New Middle East, as I said before, will include both Israel and Palestine and will be based on civil liberties. Societies will evolve from using religions to attract or search for identity to have strong political processes based on the needs of the people and the changing times. Finally yet importantly, religions will always have tremendous force on its followers especially in a place like the Middle East, the birthplace of the three divine religions, but tolerance-probably- will prevail in general.

*State of Love V....He Is Not A Robot... by Jamil Shawwa

She: I am having mixed feelings, different thoughts. It seems that I like to contradict you in every occasion, maybe I am not interested anymore, maybe I am intimidated by you...

He: is it your time of the month?

She: stop this thing every time I express how I feel or open up to you and start saying what my mind try to keep.


He: sorry but I cannot endure this anymore, I have so far endured all kinds of experiments with you, I have survived the mental connection test, the mood swings, the ups and downs. Not sure what to do anymore. I do not want to be a lab mouse, a guinea pig for your eccentricities.

She: you are a quitter; you give up very easily. You do not feel for your love, you do not want to have it the hard way, you want to set in bed or watch TV and you want me in your lap. You are the best in cuddling, loving and caressing. You are an old fashion type of a man, an office type with a secretary or two- if you can afford them- you are a prince that thinks that he is a frog.


He: I'm not a robot, buy a machine with buttons so if you are in the mood for mental stimulation, you can just push a button, if you are in the mood for mind games, you can push another button, and if you want to make love, then, I guess, you can just push a third button. You are not looking for a human being. I am not a machine, I am not a robot, I am not going to set everyday and wait. I do not like scripts, never did, I do not like tests, never did. Maybe I might be a quitter, maybe I am a prince that thinks he is a frog, but I am not accepting the status quo, I am not surrendering, I will keep trying. I might be a quitter because I'm saying no to you, but in my mind, in my mind I'm  saying to you that I feel a winner tonight, never felt better than this moment, I'm free, again, so goodbye and all the best in your experiments.

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*Disclaimer:


For entertainment purposes only. Any resemblance with any real life situations or people is just a mere coincidence. These conversations are not related to any specific person or persons. They are general human observations from life.

*A Visit To the South......by Jamil Shawwa

I live, and reside in the capital of the south, The Commonwealth of Virginia, so I am considered a southerner. I love the south; I think it has class, tradition, sometimes too much tradition. However, my southern style is combined with being adjacent to our nation's capital, Washington DC, so I am a southerner with a northern style; like both but happy to be closer to the north. The south of the United States is historically referred to those states that were hardheaded in regard to abolishing slavery, and that hot or hardheaded mentality lead to the civil war between the southern states I.e., Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, etc and the north which represented The Unites States. The war ended-thanks God- with the south being defeated and the rebirth of this great nation, The USA. The southern states still with variations here and there cherish the memory of the civil war and in some pockets, some put the confederate flag- the symbol of the south during the civil war- side by side with the US flag. Having said that, America has come a long way since then, continued to grow, indulged and opened its borders to tens of millions of immigrants that made the US demography right now the country of all with no specific dominance of a particular ethnic group. I like southern food, mainly fried, sometimes too fried and greasy for my taste, but I like it. If you drive a little deeper into Virginia, 30 miles south and above from Washington DC, you will see the rural areas, the farms, the mountains and the more laid back people, the closer you get to DC, like any metropolitan area, the closer you get to the high rhythm of life, the traffics, the speed, and the hustle and bustle of the city. Today was the day for me to go to one of these country style southern eateries, I do not want to say restaurants, because really you feel as if you are going back in time when people used to put their horses out side these saloons or eateries. I went inside and was greeted with a nice little old lady, around 75 years young, and was seated. When I ordered Earl Grey Tea, the whole place looked at me, maybe because I was loud or something or maybe because they felt that this person does not belong here, he should have ordered an all-American coffee not tea. Any way, I ignored the looks and ordered my other favorite breakfast, Pancakes, oh, my God, I can eat pancakes every morning; one of the venues to my heart-there are many venues- is an old fashion freshly prepared hot off the griddle pancakes with maple syrup and real butter. Pancakes came and I thought that I would have a breakfast of a lifetime but I was disappointed, it was greasy, as if it was fried, those southerners, and not flat put on a flat surface to be prepared slowly. I ate it and looked around and I asked the server, the seventy-five years young little old lady if the owners are still running the place, and she answered no, but it is now part of a chain. That is it, part of a chain, basically as McDonald, a factory that mass-produce things for the people just to get full. I finished my food, and my Earl Grey tea, paid my bill, left a decent tip and went out, I looked back, gave another look and said goodbye to the old south. America now is not south and north, and I like it the way it is now, America is everything and everybody, America is all faiths and religions,. America is all styles and Shapes. Anyone that thinks otherwise needs to go to that restaurant and witness the abolishment of the old south.




* Some of the best and the brightest that America brought came from the south. The heart and soul of the US military reside in the south. This article is looking at an angle in the south but it does not represent the completely rich southern experience.

The Customer with the Big Nose! ... by Jamil Shawwa

I came to realize today that I might need to diversify my eating-places portfolio; I think I am starting to get more vibes than usual from my regular Vietnamese hangout. For the past few days, the sister of the owner who happens to be a server there has been bringing her six years old daughter; not sure why, maybe just to help or maybe she wanted to send a message to all the customers that she is happily married with children, not that anyone ever tried to be fresh with her or anything. She is warm, hospitable, I mean the sever, and very good in what she does. the other day she was having a native breakfast, did not get the name, but it was made out of thick milk, bananas and other fruit that looked like apples; it was so tasty and so sweet. Just for those that wonder, her breakfast time was my lunchtime. Probably I am getting either old so my lunch is getting earlier or my work schedule requires me to eat early, or both. Any way, back to that smart server and her six years old daughter. The child runs around and helps her mother with utensils and other lightweight things and smiles at the customers. So when I come to the place, she would say hello and help and chat a little, maybe her mother told her that this guy is a regular but I hope that she did not tell her that I'm regular for the girls, which truly I'm not, just regular for the food. any way, all of a sudden and out of the blues, today, this child decided to change her welcoming patterns to me, so instead of hi and hey, she came running to the table after I situated my self and got ready to order my usual, and she just threw the big one at me and said hey, you are the customer with the big nose! What big nose, no way, I said, and she answered yes you are, and she went running back to her mother who was smiling in a naughty but nice way from behind the counter. I was going to give this child a dollar today to buy candy but the big nose remark got me thinking as how this child- kids can and are very preseptives- know or would notice a big or small nose, and is there a conspiracy from my Vietnamese waitress to send Jamil a message that just focus on the food and nothing else. Well, any way, I will continue to go and might give a dollar to that child after all; I mean she just said what she saw, or maybe what her mother saw :))

The Indian Restaurant... by Jamil Shawwa

The Indian Restaurant is open for business, actually, it has been open for business for years and years but not until recently that the Indian restaurant picked up momentum. It is everywhere now, all over the world, in every major and metropolitan city. The Chinese restaurant phenomena should watch for that neighbor from the south, it is gaining ground and it has the learnt the secrets of how to spread restaurants wherever their people go. The food is very diverse, very colorful and very tasty. It accommodates all tastes from the natives, to the seekers of new flavours and new styles. India is huge, over a billion, another scale to compete with China, a nuclear power, enough said. Back to the food now, India has multi ethnic groups, different languages and dialects, different living standards and thriving international presence. It is so contradictory and its food might represent its diversity and its unity in the same time. The ingredients of the Indian food is the same, the spices are the same, the colors are the same but when you put a Sikh, Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Jewish Hindis, the cooking will not be the same. Their country is like their food, very diverse but in the same time once you cook, you will use the same ingredients. India is everywhere now, in food of course but also in IT, the computer technology, and programming. They go everywhere and they succeed, they do not care where they are, it is completely irrelevant to them, what matters to them is that they succeed. There is some kind of occasional religious tension in India but it is not hindering its political process. You see the diversity, again, in the restaurants; Hindus mostly eat vegetable, Muslims and other faiths eat everything. There are restaurants that cater to the veggies, I am not saying Hindus, because it does not exist, and there are restaurants that cater to all. You go and choose, you will be eating next to someone who is completely your opposite in eating habits, no problem, no intrusion, no preaching as why you are not like me and that I'm not like you. They do not have it, they have poverty but they have nuclear missles, and reactors. India loves the UK, Great Britain, and the British loves the Indians; the Indians are trustworthy, they are hard working people. They look up to England and they want the British to be proud of them, they recently bought Jaguar and Landrover, and tomorrow one of them will be the British Prime Minster. India is not an aggressor, this is a big point and credit in world politics and it does not seek world dominance, which again is a good point for them. India just wants to succeed, and it will do it everywhere it's people exist in any place in the world.

*State of Love IV.....He Bows... By Jamil Shawwa

He: What is next for us? I now feel that every time I want to make love with you or even attempt to start the process- oh my God, I started to talk like you- I have to check if you are mentally stimulated and that your mind is into it. What do I need here a radar detector... every time that I want to come near you, or start a new conversation hoping that it would be the one that would hit the jackpot and will lead eventually to your womanhood. You are making me too self-conscious about the whole thing, you are taking the spontaneity out of the lovemaking, you are just being like a machine, I have to make sure that it is well oiled before I turn on the engine. I am depressed, every part of me is urging me to just jump and do it, but you are standing or setting there with these cold eyes like a schoolteacher waiting to give me a passing grade or like a guard on a borderline checking my identity cards before letting me in to the other side, the greener side. I cannot handle it anymore; I am looking for love and not a robot. You have become so cold since our last lovemaking; you have become so distant, so not appealing. I only used to look at you to get aroused, not anymore. So tell me more, even in bed, if I turn around and want to hug you or kiss you or touch you, the way I like to do because I just can not keep my hands off you whenever you are with me, do I need to wake you up or ask for permission to see if your mind is there before doing anything. Do I need to give you a news bulletin before touching...?



She: keep talking, I am starting to feel the vibes coming from my mind to every part of my body, do not stop talking, your words, your voice is stimulating my mind, my heart and my body. I hear your voice inside me before even you touch me, my little thing is crying and hitting hard, my heart is jumping and my mind is telling me, go for it.. Do your work, you primitive beast.



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*Disclaimer:



For entertainment purposes only. Any resemblance with any real life situations or people is just a mere coincidence. These conversations are not related to any specific person or persons. They are general human observations from life.